Home Help Service
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City

The home support services is a core service for older people. It is a highly valuable service used by them, their families and the HSE. Delivery of a high-quality consistent home support service is essential to help people to live well in their homes and communities for as long as possible. Recruitment to this sector is an ongoing challenge for both the HSE and private providers. Within the HSE, work is ongoing at the regional and national level to build capacity to support workforce development and improve access to home care services in the community. Within the Department of Health, work to deliver on the recommendations of the strategic workforce advisory group to support the recruitment and retention of workers in essential front-line care roles is continuing.
Since the strategic workforce advisory group was established, record levels of care have been delivered in the community. Within the Department, work is ongoing to explore options to increase the effectiveness of home support and to address waiting list issues experienced by clients around the country. Among the changes will be to explore the use of assistive technology in home support initiatives in order to directly address rural home support provision. Research is ongoing in the Department to improve the current provision of home support in communities and enable our home support service to take advantage of new technology and the support available in the sector to support clients in the service.
Going back to the specific request in relation to Cork, I will meet with the HSE in Cork to discuss recruitment, waiting lists, waiting times and the plans that are in place to recruit people and, more particularly, to bring down the waiting times.
Home support is a priority for the Government. We have made record levels of investment of more than €900 million. As already stated, the home support providers Bill will increase and improve the quality of care available in the sector. Furthermore, there is a commitment in the programme for Government regarding the design of a statutory home care scheme. In the context of the practicalities, we have provided an addition of 1.7 million hours. That was a priority in the budget.
On the Deputy's specific request, I will meet representatives of the HSE in Cork to discuss the delivery of home support hours and will update him accordingly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-28